The Hero's Tale

Photo: faster panda kill kill | License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

C'mon, even you hard-bitten guys, who've seen and done it all, who know there's no glamor in the journey and little glory when it's done, are suckers for it.

You fall for it every time, even while you're mouthing off about it in front of the TV. Don't deny it!

You know what I mean: the up-close-and-personal, overcoming-immense-obstacles, athletic Hero Story. The kind they show on the network broadcasts of triathlons, marathons, grands tours.

The tale of someone slow, or weak, or disadvantaged; who grits their teeth, stays the course, gets the job done.

It draws you in, makes you cry, gives you hope and faith, feeds your soul.

I don't know about you...

but sometimes I feel slow, weak, insufficient to the task ahead of me. (Like with a mile and a half to go in the hill climb I, um, "raced" last Saturday.)

Perhaps you do too, once in a great while.

Use this to your advantage. Write your own Hero Story.

Catalog all your obstacles, your weaknesses; lay them all out in plain view.

Be thorough; be specific. Exaggerate them for dramatic effect, if you like.

Then narrate precisely how you shall ignore them, weave around them, eliminate them, vanquish them. (Get help from a coach if you need help with any aspect of this.)

Now, live that story.